The Source

Getting our Terms Straight One difficulty lies in the various terms educators, policy makers, and other leaders use when they discuss an assessment program or system. In our experience, we’ve learned that talking about different types of assessment can lead to a “Who’s on first?” circular conversation. After a few... Read the full article >

About Lake Hills School Lake Hills School is the Exceptional Student Education Center School for Lake County, Florida, which serves students with significant cognitive disabilities (SwSCD) ages 3–22. All of the classrooms at Lake Hills School are self-contained meaning the classes are multi-grade level and multi-ability level. For example, a... Read the full article >

In addition, early childhood assessment identifies the need for intervention or support services due to developmental delays or other risk factors influencing typical development. Finally, assessment supports programs in evaluating the effectiveness of learning environments, curriculum and instructional practices. A comprehensive assessment system within an early childhood program should include... Read the full article >

What are Formative Assessments and Why Should We Use Them? by Judith Dodge Check out these teacher friendly tips from scholastic for using formative assessments to help differentiate instruction and improve student achievement. The Fatal Flaw of Educational Assessment by W. James Popham In this Education Week commentary, Dr. Popham... Read the full article >

“If we do A,” they say, “B will get better.” Sometimes they are right, at least partially. B may in fact get better. The problem is that, in many cases, B gets better without A having anything to do with it. Because we said A was going to work, though, we call it... Read the full article >

New Profit, a national venture philanthropy firm dedicated to identifying and scaling the most effective models for change in the social sector, recently documented an educational intervention in Massachusetts that we believe fits Weick’s insight to a tee. In 2011, Lawrence Public Schools (LPS) in Massachusetts became the first school... Read the full article >

Research has shown a strong relationship between student engagement and a variety of student success outcomes (e.g., Fredricks et al.,2004; Parsons et al., 2013). For example, Finn and Rock (1997) found that low-income minority students who were observed as engaged, were more likely to be academically successful, achieve passing grades,... Read the full article >

If we are purposeful and intentional in our actions, we can begin to narrow the achievement gap in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) classrooms. The study, “Effective, Sustained Inquiry-Based Instruction Promotes Higher Science Proficiency Among All Groups” published in the Journal of Science Teacher Education, showed that proficiency rates... Read the full article >

Imagine this as a typical day in an elementary, middle or high school: Elementary students working in collaborative groups to design rollercoasters with simple, everyday materials to learn about force and motion. High school and middle school teachers facilitating student-led discussions and asking questions to stimulate creative problem solving for... Read the full article >

Today’s system of education is time-based, where the measures of success are what knowledge students possess within stated timeframes as determined by large-scale assessments that promote uniformity and standardization. What really constitutes success, and how can and should we recognize success in learning? Delivering content through whatever means (e.g. traditional,... Read the full article >